As soon as it opened in 2001, the prison at Guantanamo Bay prompted international outcry from those who believed that the prisoners were being held beyond the reach of legal protection.

Below is a timeline marking the key events in the prison's history, including the legal challenges, detainee releases and political events that led to an executive order signed by Barack Obama, the US president, during his second day in office to close down the detention facility.

Colour code

Actions taken by the administration of George Bush, the former US president, are highlighted in red;

Legal challenges are highlighted in yellow;

Directives and actions taken by Obama are in blue.

2001

November 13, 2001: George Bush, the US president, issues a military order on the "Detention, Treatment and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens, in the War Against Terrorism". The order authorises the US to hold foreign nationals in custody without charge indefinitely, and prevents them from undertaking any legal process to challenge their detention.

December 28, 2001: A memorandum from the US Justice Department to the Pentagon explains that prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay are not eligible for habeas corpus rights because they are not on US soil.

January 11, 2002: The first 20 detainees arrive at Guantanamo Bay's Camp X-Ray and are held outdoors in wire mesh cages.

January 18: The International Committee of the Red Cross begins visiting prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. On the same day, the Bush administration rules that Guantanamo prisoners do not qualify as prisoners of war and are not entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention.

January 27: Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, describes the prisoners as "the worst of a very bad lot," adding that: "They are very dangerous. They are devoted to killing millions of Americans."

February 19: The Centre for Constitutional Rights files Rasul v Bush, a habeas petition, in the Washington circuit court on behalf of prisoners David Hicks, Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal.

February 21: US Federal judge dismisses the challenge to the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

March 21: The Bush administration announces new military tribunal regulations.

April 5: Prisoner Yaser Esam Hamdi is transferred from Guantanamo to military custody on the mainland after it is discovered he was born in the US state of Louisiana.

April 25: Construction of the new Camp Delta, a permanent prison facility with a capacity of more than 400, is completed.

April 28: Detainees are moved from Camp X-Ray to the new prison.

June 11: Hamdi, now held on US territory, files a writ of habeas corpus.

August 1: A memorandum from the Justice Department to then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales advises that the president can authorise a wide range of "enhanced interrogation techniques" that would not amount to torture and therefore not be prosecutable under US law. Even if torture did occur, the memorandum argues, the theory of "necessity" or "self-defence" could be used to eliminate any criminal liability.

September 15: Abdul Razaq is the first inmate to be repatriated to Afghanistan.

December 2: Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, approves a range of interrogation techniques for use at Guantanamo including sensory deprivation, isolation, stress positions and the use of dogs to "induce stress".

September: It emerges that two translators and a Muslim chaplain who worked at Guantanamo have been arrested on charges relating to espionage and improper use of classified documents. The case against the chaplain later unravels.

October 9: The Red Cross warns of the "deterioration in the psychological health of a large number of detainees".

November 10: The US Supreme Court agrees to hear appeals in the Guantanamo case.

June 28: Supreme Court rules in Rasul v Bush that the federal courts have the authority to decide whether non-US citizens detained in Guantanamo Bay are wrongfully imprisoned, and in Hamdi v Rumsfeld that the Executive Branch does not have the power to hold indefinitely a US citizen without basic due process protections enforceable through judicial review.

July 6: Mehdi Mohammad Ghezali is repatriated to Sweden.

July 7: The Pentagon launches military panels, known as Combatant Status Review Tribunals or CSRTs, to determine the "enemy combatant" status of each prisoner.

July 17: Yusef Nabied and Abdul Karim Irgashive are repatriated to Tajikistan.

August 13: Review tribunals begin. The tribunal involves three officers who present the unclassified summary evidence against the detainee and question him about his role in events. The three judge panel then decides whether the detainee is an enemy combatant or if he may be released. They are permitted to rely on classified or coerced evidence against detainees denied legal representation.

October 27:Four former British detainees launch legal action against the US government. In the first case of its kind, Rasul, Iqbal, Ahmed and al Harith each demand $9m as compensation for alleged torture and other human rights violations. The Pentagon declares that the men are not entitled to a payout because they were captured "in combat".

November 8: US District Judge James Robertson orders the halt of the military commissions, saying they are unlawful and cannot continue in their current form.

April 19: The Associated Press lauches legal action against the US defence department in an attempt to force the release of transcripts and other documents related to Guantanamo military hearings.

April 25: Mosa Zi Zemmori and Mesut Sen are repatriated to Belgium.

May 20: The Associated Press lawsuit results in the release of nearly 2,000 pages of documents, although detainees' names and nationalities blacked out. The documents include excerpts from prisoners' testimonies.

July 15: Judge Robertson's order to halt military commissions is overturned by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Court.

July 18: Laacin Ikassrin, a citizen of Morocco, is transferred to Spain.

August 29: US District Judge Jed Rakoff orders the government to ask each prisoner whether they want personal information that could be used to identify them to be released to the Associated Press. Of 317 detainees who received the form, 63 said yes, 17 said no, 35 returned the form without answering and 202 did not return the form.

November 7: The Supreme Court announces it will hear Hamdan v Rumsfeld.

November 10: US Senate approves an amendment that continues to withhold the right for the prisoners to file habeas corpus petitions.

November 14: District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rules that the Pentagon cannot resume Hicks's military commission proceeding until the Supreme Court rules on its constitutionality in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.

December 30: The Detainee Treatment Act comes into law. The Act bans the use of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners, but severely curtails their right to challenge their detention.

June 29: Supreme Court rules that the Bush administration's military commissions violate the laws of war and international conventions. The court also reiterates that detainees could pursue cases in civilian courts.

July 12: Bush repeals his February 2002 directive and accepts that the Geneva Conventions apply to detainees.

August 24: Murat Kurnaz is transferred to Germany, where he is a legal resident.

October 17: President Bush signs the Military Commissions Act into law. The Act strips US courts of jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus appeals from any foreign national held as an "enemy combatant" in US custody anywhere in the world. It also narrows the scope of the USA's War Crimes Act, by not expressly criminalising Common Article 3's prohibition on unfair trials or "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment". The Act will allow the CIA's secret detention programme to continue.

February 28: Rukniddin Fayziddinovich Sharipov and Mehrabanb Fazrollah are repatriated to Tajikistan. Haji Ghalib and Nasser Gul Ghaman are repatriated to Afghanistan. Sobit Valikhonovich Vakhidov, a citizen of Tajikistan, is transferred to an unknown country.

March 9: Combat Status Review Tribunals are held for Ramzi Binalshibh and Abu Faraj Al Libi.

March 10: CSRT held for Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

March 12: CSRT held for Tawfiq Bin Attash.

March 13: CSRT held for Mohamed Farik Bin Amin Zubair.

March 14: CSRT held for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. He claims torture made him confess to terrorist activities.

March 17: CSRT held for Ahmad Khalfan Ghailani.

March 18: Two UK residents, Ahmed Rashidi and Ahmed Belbacha are cleared by a Pentagon tribunal but face indefinite detention because the UK refuses to authorize their release.

March 20: CSRT held for Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep.

March 21: CSRT held for Mustafa Al Hawsawi.

March 26: Abdul Malik Abdul-Jabbar, a citizen of Kenya, is transferred to Guantanamo Bay, marking the first time since September 2004 that a detainee has been directly transferred to Guantanamo.

March 27: CSRT held for Abu Zubaida.

March 30: CSRT held for Ammar al Baluchi. Bisher Amin Khalil al Rawi, a citizen of Iraq, is transferred to the UK.

April 4: CSRT held for Hambali.

April 15: CSRT held for Majid Khan.

April 24: Ahmed Rashidi is repatriated to Morocco. Azimullah is repatriated to Afghanistan.

May 20: Murat Kurnaz becomes the first ex-Guantanamo detainee to testify before the US Congress, which he does from Germany via videolink.

June 12: The United States Supreme Court rules on Boumediene v Bush and Al Odah v United States that detainees at Guantanamo Bay should have a right to challenge their detention in US Federal Courts through habeas corpus petitions.

June 30: Military Commission Charges sworn against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

July 2: Abdul Raham Houari and Mustafa Ahmed Hamlily are repatriated to Algeria.

October 31: Abdulrahim Kerimbakiev is repatriated to Kazakhstan. Zainulabidin Merozhev is repatriated to Tajikistan.

November 4: Muhamed Hussein Abdallah is transferred to Somaliland.

November 10: Labed Ahmed and Soufian Abar Huwari are repatriated to Algeria.

November 16: Barack Obama declares his intention to close Guantanamo.

November 25: Salim Hamdan is transferred to Yemeni custody. He is sentenced to 5 and a half years in prison, with 5 years and one month credited for pre-trial confinement.

December 16: Mohammed Nechle Mustafa Ait Idr and Hadj Boudella are transferred to Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are three members of the "Algerian Five" who were ruled releasable in the Washington District Court on November.

January 14: A public statement admitting that a detainee was tortured is released for the first time by a senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo Bay. The statement admitted that the treatment of a Saudi national (Mohammed al-Qahtani) met the legal definition of torture.

January 22: President Obama issues three executive orders: one ordering the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay in one year, another banning the use of controversial CIA interrogation techniques, and a third ordering the review of detention policy options.

February 23: Binyam Mohamed is transferred to the UK.

May 15: Lakhdar Boumediene is transferred to France. He had been held since 2002 and had be used by lawyers to win the landmark Supreme Court case which ruled detainees at Guantanamo Bay had the right to habeas corpus. Meanwhile, President Obama announces he will continue with the much criticized system of military tribunals that President Bush created to try terrorism suspects, albeit in a different form.

June 1: Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh al Hanashi dies at Guantanamo.

June 9: The first detainee, Ahmed Ghailani, who is not an American citizen is brought from Guantanamo Bay to the United States to face a federal trial.

Material for this timeline was provided by Reprieve, a legal charity based in London. Reprieve provides legal representation to around 30 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and investigates US-run secret prisons around the world.

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